A group of scientists held “conversations” with humpback whales in Alaska, hoping that the principles they learned could one day help communicate with aliens.
The team was brought together by the SETI Institute, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to search for extraterrestrial intelligence throughout the universe. The group usually looks to the sky, but last winter it turned to the sea.
“Whales are surrogates for aliens,” animal behaviorist Dr. Josie Hubbard tells the Post. “They are intelligent creatures who speak a language that is alien to us. What we learn from communicating with whales may be useful when connecting with aliens.”
“Their language is complex,” added whale song theorist Lisa Walker, who participated in the mission. “They make whooping, slurping, grunting, and squeaking noises. Their vocalizations are fascinating. We’re just trying to figure out what those calls mean.”
Scientists believe that some whale calls are simply social sounds, but hypothesize that other vocalizations have specific communicative value. “They could be giving orders,” Hubbard said. “Go up, go down, go this way, go there.”
So what kind of conversation took place between scientists and whales, and what did it mean?
In December 2023, the team was on a boat off the coast of Alaska. When we spotted a pod of whales, we played underwater recordings of humpback whales. However, despite their best efforts, most whales ignored the sounds, or at least did not recognize any recognizable sounds.
But then a female humpback whale named Twain began circling around the boat. The scientists played the recording, and Twain imitated the sound and began calling out to the boat, as if to say hello.
“It was a contact phone call,” Hubbard said. “This is how whales call each other. They purr, and we believe that’s how they locate each other. And here we have a unique encounter with Twain. She had a great response.”
“We might have just said hi, she said hi, and we said hi again,” Walker explains. “But it was clear communication. In her 20 minutes she did it 36 times and only stopped after the playback stopped.”
A description and analysis of this encounter appears in the latest issue of the magazine. science magazine Peer J. The title is “Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for the detection and exploration of non-human intelligence: ‘Conversations’ with Alaska’s humpback whales.”
“We believe this is the first time this type of communication has occurred between humans and humpback whales using humpback whale ‘language,'” lead author Dr. Brenda McCowan of the University of California, Davis, said in a statement. mentioned in.
“Humpback whales are highly intelligent,” added co-author Dr. Fred Sharp of the Alaska Whale Foundation. “They have a complex social system, build tool nets out of foam to catch fish, and communicate extensively with both songs and social calls.”
So how does this help scientists communicate with otherworldly creatures?
“Language has structure,” Hubbard says. “And if we can learn how to communicate with creatures that are very different from us, then we might be able to use the same principles with intelligent life that is not from Earth. That’s interesting research. .”
